As many people kickstart their New Year’s resolutions, this month Khalil Hussein discusses how to minimise the risk of injuries while exercising.
The new year has rolled around, and we are all feeling the effects of one too many Christmas meals and desserts. Life is slowly inching back to normal now and everyone has made their New Year’s resolutions. New year, new me!
I’m sure the list includes exercising five days per week, writing a book, meditating and losing five to 10 kilograms. Easy right?
Well, you’re not alone in your desire to make 2023 a stellar year. However, there are a few pitfalls you need to watch out for – especially when it comes to an exercise plan.
In January the gyms are filled with good intentions, and by March couches are filled with gym subscriptions that never get used!
Too much too soon
Everyone wants to lose 10kgs in a week and build big muscles, or hit that personal record with the weights or on their run.
Unfortunately, your body isn’t a computer that you can just install a new program into. It needs time for changes to happen. Especially the older you get, adaptations occur at a much slower rate.
I’m going to breakdown common sports and injuries that occur.
Running
If running is something you want to do, then you need to be realistic with yourself about how much you can achieve in a few months.
The incidence of bone stress injuries is extremely high in long distance running, and can even occur with a sudden increase in walking.
This is because when most people start running or even rapidly increasing the number of steps they take per day, your cardiovascular system can adapt quite quickly. As a result, within four to six weeks you’re feeling much less out of breath, and you can go from running for 10 minutes to a full hour.
Your muscular system is often the next to adapt after two to three months. Your tendons and muscles all become stronger and more able to withstand the constant impact of long-distance running/walking.
However, bone takes a substantial amount of time longer. So, what happens to most people is that they feel like they want to push themselves to run more because they are feeling confident and getting less out of breath, and so they increase their running time and distances in a matter of one to two months.
Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to stress on the bones of lower limbs and to stress fractures and bone stress injuries. These injuries are debilitating, and they really throw off your progress as you’ll have to take some time off running to allow them to heal.
Concurrently, tendon related injuries also occur from the same phenomenon of ‘too much too soon’. In addition, many runners find they are faced with issues such as plantar fasciopathy, runner’s knee and many other ailments!
How to avoid this
If you’re new, start by utilising the run/walk method. This is where you focus on walking with short burst of running interlaced into a small distance, eg one to two miles. You do this one to three times a week for a few weeks, slowly increasing the amount of time you’re running for in those short bursts.
Ideally, try to maintain the same distance for a few weeks before increasing. This might feel slow but there are many other ways to improve your cardio without the added bone/tendon/muscle stress, such as interval training, cycling or swimming.
Bones seem to stop responding to stress after a few minutes so it’s much better to do things that are higher frequency (eg everyday) rather than something done very intensely once a week. Adding in plyometrics (eg skipping and jumping exercises) do wonders for bone and tendon strengthening and can be done on your days off and all they require is 10-15 minutes.
I would not advise high volume HIT style jumping, as this is another example of too much too soon. Start small and build it up slowly!
Gym and weight lifting
If you’re after building some big muscles or just getting the plethora of benefits of resistance training, it’s best to try and follow a few simple principles to limit your injury risk.
Remember injuries can not be prevented entirely. Instead we can try to reduce the risk of them occurring.
If you’re new to the gym, start by utilising full body workouts as these are often less stressful on the muscles and joints. They also allow for optimal recovery time between workouts.
Typically, you hear of chest days and back days. While these are fine for seasoned trainees, in my opinion it is not ideal for someone who has not trained for quite some time. This is because the overall stress is very high per workout which can increase injury risk.
Remember that even with full body workouts, don’t kill yourself every workout, as that will increase injury risk.
Ideally, push yourself hard once a week for a few weeks and then increase that to two to three times once you’re more confident and stronger.
Be mindful
It is also important to practice a full range of motion lifting. This will ensure you aren’t lifting beyond your means too soon.
You’re only as strong as your weakest range of motion. If you’re not very flexible, reduce the range of motion until you’re able to complete repetitions with good form.
For example, deadlifting from a raised height is beneficial for beginners, slowly dropping the bar height over time. If you notice some lifts are difficult or cause some discomfort, you can either replace that exercise with something else or modify the exercise to suit your current capabilities. This can be done by reducing the weight, the speed or the angle at which you lift can all help.
There are many ways to get fit and healthy. As long as you enjoy what you’re doing, you’re headed in the right direction.
Just be mindful of how and what you’re doing so that you don’t lose momentum to an injury!
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Catch previous Dentistry Gym articles:
- Ergonomics won’t save you from pain or injury
- Pain isn’t what you think it is
- Acute lower back pain? Try this out
- Do this for your sore neck
- Things that work for back and things that don’t.
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